Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he
chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and
blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus
Christ, according to he purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious
grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
I was reading this and began thinking about the idea of prayer and blessings. We often desire that God would bless us and pray that he would do so. And there's nothing wrong with that. But it occurrs to me that what we often mean when we think about that is material blessings, that God would give us more of the things of this world. More income or stability, more safety, better grades, more comfortable or desirable work, etc.
How often we forget about spiritual blessings. Of course this is kind of ironic because, as we see in this passage, God has already given us "every spiritual blessing" in Christ. He chose us for adoption into His family through Christ, He forgave our rebellion and sin in Christ, and in verse 11 He has given us an amazing and eternal inheritance as members of His household.
We are blessed in the ways that really matter. I wonder why we so easily get distracted with desiring and focusing on material blessings. Of course there's nothing wrong with any of those things, but how often do we get distracted by them to the point where our joy disappears without them? Perhaps that's why, in Colossians 3, we're commanded to focus on things above rather than on earthly things. But of course that's easier said then done.
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